Unplugged
by Ryven
Summary: Set between Matrix and Reloaded. The Nebuchadnezzar frees a group of talented hackers from the matrix as part of a new tactic to fight the machines
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Thanks be to my fantastic Beta! Hail Mussed goddess of correct grammar! Much luv also to Zephyr who took a look and helped with the unplugging. I have some specific things I wanted to explore so this is my effort to that end. Dedicated to the Hardline: You guys inspire and challenge me. You rock. ~Ry  
  
Unplugged Chapter 1  
  
Spike grinned as he watched the status bar speed across his screen. The bar showed 100% infection before his program switched over to the next file. Spike's slightly pudgy fingers flew across the keyboard as he brought up his instant message program and contacted his partners in mayhem and mischief.  
  
"Three more files, guys." He paused and watched as his little masterpiece completed its task. The vulnerability in the new system was a recent find and Spike was sure he'd made a working exploit script. Fame in the hacking community was given to those who found a bug to exploit or made a script to exploit one. Here, his team had followed an inside tip and figured out an exploit for what turned out to be a pretty big bug. "Got it. Go!" Spike sat back in his chair and waited as Syzygy began hacking the internal system through the back door he'd just opened wide. F33r was set to upload their little package and download the information they wanted, while Griffin was waiting for the signal to patch it all up.  
  
Alone, they were pretty decent hackers. Together? Together they were the Legendary Lords of the Clan of the Masters of the Fists of Screaming Monkey Chaos. "Tremble before our might, ye mortals," Spike smirked at his screen as Griffin signaled that he'd already begun their cover up operation. This would be their biggest hack yet; something which would move their little clan up from the relative minors and into the major league. They would be Elite.  
  
He watched his comrades' type quick messages to one another in the homemade chat program they'd created: F33r typing in what he called 'Sith' red, Syzygy in 'night elf' blue, Griffin in 'mountain dew' yellow and himself in what he referred to as 'radioactive' green'.  
  
"Operation Screw'em is complete. Nice work guys." Griffin said as he completed his part of the op.  
  
"Think it will take 'em long to figure out just how screwed they are?" Syzygy asked.  
  
"Ha! They won't know what hit'em," Spike replied with a grin. Intercom Corp. was going down. The virus in the system they'd placed would be operational exactly three hours after the start of the business day. Meanwhile, the bugs they'd placed in the system would send DoS signals once every hour for four hours afterwards before destroying themselves - and simultaneously taking out part of any server they happened to be on. Spike and the Clan Lords could sit back and have a good laugh while the fucking CEOs shit their pants in panic and watched their profit margin take a bit of a tumble.  
  
Served the bastards right, as far as Spike was concerned. Intercon spoon fed the internet to its customers, driving their IQs down a few points whenever they were presented with something remotely technical. The IOL system was home to millions of mindless newbies and hacker wannabes. They were a plague on the internet. Recently the company had decided to take the RIAA seriously and join the fight on free file sharing. That combined with their crap proprietary software had made the company a prime target for members of the hacking community. But as noble as their cause was, the Clan Lords really just wanted to see if they could do it. Changing grades was one thing, crashing the computer system of a small business was another, but bringing down something as huge as Intercom Corp online? That was the stuff that legends were made of. Ambitious? Sure. Crazy? Maybe. But the satisfaction would be sweet.  
  
"Aww shit," F33r said. "The 'rents are home. Gotta go do the dinner thing."  
  
"Cya then," Syzygy replied as F33r's status flicked to 'away'.  
  
"Bobby! Bobby! Dinner!" Spike groaned and began typing quickly.  
  
"The old lady is calling me to dinner too. I'll be back in a few," Spike said and quickly locked his computer. He was rising from his chair when someone began pounding on his door.  
  
"Dinner!" his oldest brother yelled as he gave the door one last good smack. Spike sighed and pushed open the door of his small room, wincing in the light.  
  
"Curse you Day Star!" he muttered at the setting sun.  
  
Pale and slightly overweight, Robert ('Bobby' - God how he hated that nickname) O'Neil was a 16 year old student by day and hacker by night. His parents called him Bobby, but he called himself Spike after the kickass character in Cowboy Bebop, his favorite anime. He was co-founder of the Clan Lords (though Griffin had thought up the impossibly long name) and enjoyed some small renown in the hacker community. Spike had found both F33r and Syzygy and convinced them to join forces. There were a few clan members they called on for bigger jobs and with whom they chatted and, occasionally, gamed, but the four were the Clan's Lords and the IOL job had been theirs alone.  
  
Spike trudged down the hall and took his place at the dinner table. His mother was busy serving plates to his three sisters and two brothers. His father looked over the paper at his middle son.  
  
"Bobby! You ready for football camp?" his father asked gruffly. Bobby hid a sigh. Sighing would only make his father annoyed.  
  
"No. You sure I can't go do a computer camp this summer?" Bobby asked. His father's lips thinned and Bobby knew he was no closer to getting his dad to back down than he had been since the subject had first been brought up.  
  
"Now Bobby, we talked about this," his mother said as she began feeding bite sized pieces of chicken to the twins in their highchairs. "It's not right for a boy to be cooped up in a dark room, looking at a screen all day. Some time outside will do you a world of good. And don't you want to be on the football team like your older brother?" She smiled dotingly at his eldest brother. Jim was shoveling food so fast Spike was sure he was going to choke. "Besides, your sisters are going to Soccer camp."  
  
What his sisters going to soccer camp had to do with him spending his entire summer running around like a damn fool with a bunch of unwashed guys who together probably had the same IQ he had, Spike didn't know. But he wasn't going ask either. The last time he'd asked, his father had started to go a bit red around the neck and his mother had actually cried. But the worst part had been the threat to remove his computer: only the argument that he needed it to do class work had saved him.  
  
"And a bit of fresh air would do you good," his mother concluded. His father grunted an agreement. 'A bit of fresh air' was his mother's way of telling him he was fat.  
  
Spike sighed and wondered how the hell he'd been born into this family. They were nice enough, Spike supposed. But they didn't understand him at all. They were totally unsupportive of his interest in computers - not that they were entirely supportive of his activities other than computers either.  
  
His parents didn't understand what computers were to him. As soon as he'd gotten online and discovered the world literally at his fingertips, Bobby had been hooked. Here were people who didn't give a shit what race, religion or belt size you were. Here his mind was as fast as or faster than anyone else's. Online he could ask questions and find answers, something he hadn't had much success with in real life. Then Bobby had discovered hacking and hadn't looked back.  
  
The internet community was alive in a way the 'real world' wasn't. Here, he was accepted. Here he was free to explore as he chose and no one was his master. Not his teachers, not his schoolmates, not his parents and not even his government (though they tried).  
  
Spike speared a carrot and began plotting. School ended in three weeks and then he was off to death camp, unless he did something about it.  
  
*******  
  
The next day the school was abuzz with the news. Someone had hacked the popular online service Intercon Online. Every single password from California to Maine, Oregon to Florida had been wiped clean, websites had been redirected randomly or shut down entirely and third of the company's servers were in shambles. Most embarrassingly of all, a bug in the anti- pirating software the company was so proud of was apparently the way the hackers had accessed the system. Emergency measures had been taken to restore the network, but it had yet to become stable. Spike allowed himself a self satisfied smile as he overheard his classmates talking.  
  
"So like, I totally went to go check my email and like I could not get on. So I like called my dad and he's all "Well why don't you try restarting?", so I did. And then like nothing happened so I called up Janie and SHE was like totally kicked offline."  
  
"Yeah. It sucked so badly. I was playing Warcraft and then Boom! My connection dies and I can't log back in."  
  
"My dad was upset with our service anyway so we just switched to a local ISP. I was back online in an hour."  
  
"My mom decided to get this new recipe from the 'Wholesome Family Eating' website, and she gets the Krispy Kreme website. So she tries again and gets this weird porn site and she totally flipped out."  
  
Spike smirked and sat alone on one of the walls outside, eating his lunch quietly. The attack had been planned for months and the result was truly impressive. Spike felt a thrill of power as he surveyed the tables of eating students. Peons, he though. With his hacking success to bolster his morale, his mind turned back to the depressing problem of his annoying family and sports-crazy father. Spike let his gaze wander as he considered the merits of getting a summer job versus taking summer classes.  
  
A tall man wearing a black coat was leaning against a tree watching the students. Spike watched the guy for a moment. He was probably one of the younger teachers' boyfriends or something. Damn, but he had cool threads. The sunglasses were excellent as well. The man turned his head in Spike's direction and Spike quickly looked away, pretending to be fascinated with his book bag. When he looked back up the guy was gone.  
  
"Weird," Spike said to himself. Slightly creeped out, he gathered his stuff and headed back inside.  
  
********* "Bobby, are you sure you don't want to go out?"  
  
"No mom. I have to work to do on the computer. I have homework and have to study for my finals, so I can't go out." Spike yelled to his mother as he climbed up to his room. He rolled his eyes. He still needed to come up with a way to get out of a summer without his computer. A hacker without a computer? The very idea was ludicrous! Spike logged into his computer with a few keystrokes.  
  
A screen flashed up indicating that his mother had attempted to log into his computer again. Spike smirked and changed his passwords just in case, then logged onto the internet. F33r, Syzygy and Griffin were already online.  
  
"Hey man," F33r greeted. "We were just talking about our little success. Seems we caused a bit of a stir."  
  
"Totally," Syzygy agreed, "check this." Syzygy posted a link to a hacker message board discussing the Clan's attack.  
  
"Nice," Spike agreed as he browsed the comments. Already their hacking script was being employed by a hundred or more script-kiddies. IOL had hardened their system somewhat, but they were being slowed down by the traffic. It was beautiful.  
  
"The Legion of 1337 has taken up our clarion call to arms and people who actually matter are impressed," F33r summarized. The 'Legion of 1337' F33r referred to was the numerous wannabe hackers and script kiddies who ran scripts built by other people to cause mayhem.  
  
"Did you read to the bottom of the page yet?" Griffin asked. Spike scrolled down through the responses and saw immediately what his friends were looking at. There was a post from a hacker called Trinity. Spike whistled. Trinity was one of the big dogs. One of the truly Elite. He'd hacked the IRS-d base a few years back and a compliment from him was worth a lot in the hacker community. Not bad for the fat kid, Spike thought.  
  
"So our next target? I vote the Matrix. It's time to tackle it." Syzygy said. The Matrix was an elusive something that the Clan had been keeping tabs on since the Clan has formed. It was something they'd each heard of as single hackers individually and together they hoped to find out what it was. They worked best as a team and the Matrix, whatever it was, was just another thing to be hacked.  
  
"Dude, we still don't even know what it is," Griffin reminded.  
  
"Details," F33r responded but Spike knew Griff had a point. How can you hack something which half the community said didn't exist?  
  
"Morpheus knows," Syzygy typed. "I think he hacked it and that's why everyone's so hot to arrest him."  
  
"Gee, not because he's blown up a few buildings?" F33r asked, sarcasm evident even in the soundless text.  
  
"He's a hacker even if he blows stuff up. His list of cyber crimes is at least twice as long as the one the feds have posted about him blowing shit up," Syzygy replied.  
  
"This is true," F33r conceded.  
  
"So how do we find the world's most wanted terrorist? The guy is a ghost. It'd be easier to find the damned Matrix database or whatever it is," Griffin replied.  
  
"You lost interest in hacking the Matrix?" F33r asked.  
  
"Nope. Not a bit. Just being realistic," Griff replied. Spike mentally shrugged. Griffin, for all his quirky sense of humor and affinity for the odd and unusual, was the pragmatic one of the group.  
  
"Guys," Spike interrupted, "I got a possibly bigger problem. Our summer plans might have to wait. The 'rents decided I need to go to football camp." Spike sent. There was a moment of silence before Griff responded.  
  
"Dude. Are you kidding? A) that sucks, B) we've been planning on doing a major job this summer for months now, C) dude you hate physical activity."  
  
"D) the meat-heads will kill you," Syzygy chimed in.  
  
"Gee, thanks fellas," Spike replied, sure that his own sarcasm would be obvious. "But I need a hand. How can I get out of this? If I don't figure something out in the next three weeks, I will be computer-less for three months."  
  
"Dude, you'll die of withdrawal," F33r said. Spike agreed. Despite their recent success, to Spike the immediate future looked grim and smelled strongly of unwashed gym socks.  
  
****** The next evening Spike logged in having just spoken with his parents. His fingers struck the keys with a little extra force, fueled by anger and annoyance.  
  
"No go, guys. They don't buy the pre-college idea. Too bad. It would have been sweet to have that kind of broadband for the summer." Spike leaned back as his friends offered their condolences and began thinking of other ideas.  
  
Suddenly a fifth color of text appeared on the screen.  
  
"Greetings Clan Lords." The text appeared in purple. Spike was shocked. Who the hell had hacked him Who even knew about the program? Was he the only one being hacked?  
  
"Who are you?" Griffin asked after a moment of silence.  
  
"You all know that that is an unimportant question," the anonymous party typed. "The Matrix has you."  
  
"How can the Matrix have us? It's just another database, right?" F33r typed back.  
  
"The Matrix is everywhere," came back after a moment.  
  
"Who are you? What is it?" Syzygy typed in. Spike watched as no answer came. The Clan waited for a few minutes in silence.  
  
"I think he's gone," Spike typed. "Who do you think that was? They were good, whoever they were."  
  
"Morpheus?" Syzygy suggested.  
  
"Nah. He's too Elite with a capital 'E' to contact us - even if we did just pull off a fricking amazing job," Griffin replied after a moment of thought.  
  
"Neo?" Spike suggested. Rumor was that Neo was making the rounds in much the same way that Morpheus did: hack stuff, blow shit up and post to random hacker forums about something called the Matrix.  
  
"Neo? Shit, man. That'd be something."  
  
"I dunno," Syzygy said, "But now we have to find it. I don't like the idea of some sort of big system out there 'having me' or whatever. We have to find out what the Matrix is. I'm already out of school for the summer, so I'm starting now."  
  
"I don't like secrets. That's why I hack things," F33r admitted. Spike felt the same way.  
  
Spike watched his friends discuss the hacking and mulled over the enigmatic words of the mysterious hacker "The Matrix has you," they had warned. Was it really a database like they had theorized? Or was it something bigger and much frightening? He didn't like the idea of a big controlling system either. He sighed; it felt like he was caught up in a system already. His parents, his school - hell even the government - all seemed to chain him up and keep him from what he wanted. But what did he really want? Spike wasn't sure, but his current life wasn't it.  
  
"It's like he just doesn't exist," typed a tired Griffin after Syzygy and F33r had finally logged off around 5 am local.  
  
"He's good," Spike admitted. "Night, Griff. I'll try the college thing with the 'rents again tomorrow. Who knows, maybe they'll crack."  
  
Spike's parents didn't buy the idea of Spike going to pre-college to learn better programming the next day, or the next. Despite Spike's best efforts, they weren't budging. If anything, they were more convinced that Spike should go to football camp because it "simply wasn't healthy" to be addicted to the computer the way he was. Spike backed off when they again threatened to take it away completely.  
  
Instead, he became obsessed with finding and hacking the Matrix. His friends seemed to sense his urgency and the four began an assault on every known archive or news site, gathering information and rumors, collecting addresses and news articles. Syzygy was particularly driven when it came to information gathering. His need to know drew Spike back into the search when his determination flagged. School ended and Spike now could devote his full time to the 'net and their search for the Matrix. His parents, however, were now even more firmly in favor of Football Camp.  
  
After another night's fruitless searching, Spike sat back, his bulky frame causing his chair to squeak, and rubbed his tired eyes. Sighing he reached over and logged off. But before he could turn off his monitor, the screen blacked out on it's own.  
  
"What the." he said aloud. An old style green terminal cursor began blinking on the screen.  
  
"Hello, Spike," the cursor typed.  
  
"Hello?" Spike tentatively typed back.  
  
"I know that you've been looking for me." The text responded. "They're watching you now, Spike." Spike swallowed. The reply was being typed in real time - he was actually speaking to someone!  
  
"Who's watching me?" Spike asked.  
  
"The System," the nameless person replied. "Time for bed, Spike."  
  
Spike blinked. In that instant his computer returned to normal. He jumped as his mother rapped on his door.  
  
"Bobby! It's 2 am! Go to bed!"  
  
"Just going now, mom," Spike replied, never taking his eyes off the screen. How the hell had he been hacked like that? It was magic. Was his mother's arrival a coincidence with the hacker's words? Was the hacker watching him even as the mysterious 'System' was? How in god's name had he been hacked? He was sure his system was hardened against just about everything. Spike moved his cursor to check on his security programs and realized with a shock that he was already disconnected from the internet.  
  
With a trembling hand, Spike did something he almost never did, and shut down his system.  
  
When Spike logged on the next day, he had exactly one week until he was shuttled off to Football Camp for the entire summer. F33r and Griffin were already online, tracking down a Morpheus sighting from earlier in the year. Spike told his friends about being hacked the night before and each admitted to getting a similar message after they'd logged off.  
  
"Think someone's messing with us?" Griffin asked.  
  
"Messing with us? Dude, this is way beyond messing with us," Spike typed. "We were hacked after we logged off. I checked my system and I can't find out how they maintained a connection to my computer let along hacked into it like that, and for the life of me I can't think of why someone with that kind of talent would bother with us anyway." Spike paused. "Unless the big names were more impressed with our little Op than we thought."  
  
"Somehow, I don't think it was related to Operation Screw'em," Griffin said.  
  
"The Matrix?" F33r suggested after a moment.  
  
"Could be. Speaking of which, we have a week." Spike said. The four bent to their task.  
  
Spike was sure his life would end with the beginning of Football Camp. Either he would die from being pounded by the jocks, or he'd die of computer withdrawal. For now, though, he was determined to make the most of his time online. One thing that worried them as was the fact that Syzygy hadn't appeared online yet. He wasn't on that evening nor the next day either.  
  
"Maybe he got grounded?" Griffin suggested. "Or maybe he's on vacation. No, he would have told us. Maybe he hacked his school and he took some heat and he's sitting in juvenile detention with a bunch of pot heads and gang members. No, wait, he was abducted by a bunch of Feds and now he's sitting in an interrogation room and they're pushing alien truth drugs into his system as they slowly break down his mind!"  
  
"You watch too much of the X-files," F33r told Griffin.  
  
"Either of you know where he is?" Spike asked. "Like, in the real world. He hasn't been online in three days and after the stuff we've been pulling and that message? Dude, it's too creepy to be a coincidence."  
  
"I know Syzygy was supposed to be in Arizona someplace. No clue other than that. I'm in South Carolina," F33r said. "No way for me to check physically."  
  
"I'm in Florida," Griffin said. "Central Cali," Spike admitted. The four had never met in real life, though they'd talked about it a couple of times.  
  
******  
  
Syzygy didn't reappear online again. His friends had tried to track him down in Arizona, but hadn't had any luck.  
  
"We had more luck finding information about what the Matrix than finding a person. What sort of sad hackers are we?" F33r typed.  
  
"We tried man," Griffin said.  
  
"Hopefully He'll be back soon to help you guys. Cya in three weeks," Spike typed, his mood desolate.  
  
"And then there were two," F33r typed out, the last thing Spike saw as he logged off.  
  
Spike shut down his computer for the last time. He considered for a moment then removed the power cord from the strip and the back of the case. He coiled it and stuck it down the front of the deep drawer he kept his school books in. The reason for this was two fold. First, his computer would definitely be protected from any extreme power surges. Second it would deter his parents from casually trying break his passwords. If the computer had no power and they had to search for the cable, they'd be much less likely to try and get in.  
  
Spike's bags were packed and his dad was loading up the car to take his sisters and him to the buses which would take them to their summer camps. His sisters were loudly yelling as they raced one another down the hall. His mother was screaming for them to be quiet and not run in their soccer cleats in the house and would they please not wake up the twins? The twins, of course, awoke a moment later.  
  
Spike pushed out of his chair and left the house. He sat on the large, supposedly decorative, rock in the front yard and watched the street. His father and brother were grunting over the car. They gave the roof rack another tug and then, slapping one another on the back, trudged inside. Spike pointedly ignored them and stared down the road.  
  
A FedEx truck turned down into their street and Bobby watched it make a few stops before coming towards their house. The truck rolled to a stop and the delivery guy got out. Spike walked over to meet him.  
  
"Robert O'Neil?" The guy asked. Spike nodded, signed the clipboard shoved under his nose and took the package. The truck roared away and Spike turned the package over.  
  
He opened it and withdrew a very expensive-looking cell phone. The phone rang and Spike nearly dropped it. He looked at it as it rang again, and then cautiously answered it.  
  
"H-Hello?" he asked.  
  
"Hello Spike," said a calm voice. "Do you know who this is?"  
  
Spike paused a moment, he had no clue. Then he had a thought.  
  
"Syzygy?" He asked. The voice chuckled.  
  
"No. But your friend is safe. You are not. They're coming for you, Spike."  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"Morpheus."  
  
"You're shitting me man," Spike said. But he didn't really mean it. This was so bizarre it almost had to be real. No one he spoke with in real life knew he was a hacker. No one he knew would send him cell phones in a FedEx package. No one knew he was Spike.  
  
"No, I'm not. Look down your street. Do you see the dark sedan?" Spike squinted down the street. There was an unfamiliar dark car parked in front of the McNally's driveway.  
  
"Is that them?" Spike asked.  
  
"Yes. You can either go to camp and then with them, or you can run through the woods behind your house to the next neighborhood over. The choice is yours."  
  
Spike looked at the car. Low-slung, boxy, and with shaded windows, it was evil in an almost clichéd way. Spike could picture the G men sitting in it. He looked at his house and winced as one of his sisters started to shriek excitedly about camp. He didn't need more than half a second to think about it.  
  
"Straight through the woods?" Spike asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Ok then." Spike casually made his way indoors, through the house and out the back, carefully concealing the phone in his pocket. Everything seemed oddly surreal. Why was he trusting a voice on a cell phone unexpectedly delivered only moments ago? It was sheer lunacy - but he was doing it anyway.  
  
Once outside he began jogging for the woods. He pulled out the phone.  
  
"What happens once I get out through the woods?" Spike asked between heaving breaths as he sped between the trees, praying he wouldn't be seen and hauled back by his brothers or father to the house. Spike wasn't even going to think about what spooks in dark sedans could do to him.  
  
"Go around this house to the street. Hurry. I have to end this call now." The phone went dead in Spike's hand and he shoved it back into his pocket.  
  
It was hot and Spike was not in the best of shape, so it was rough going through the woods. He thought he was going to throw up then pass out by the time he made it through. He sprinted out through someone's backyard and into the street, half collapsing on a mailbox while he caught his breath. Another dark car drove up, stopped by him and opened a back door. Spike looked up and saw the darkly dressed man from nearly a month ago seated in the car's back seat. The man quickly looked into the woods behind Spike and then slid over the seat, making room.  
  
"Get in." Wordlessly, Spike got into the car and slammed the door behind himself. The woman driving stepped on the gas and Spike was thrown against the back seat.  
  
"You're lucky," the man said with a smile. "When I did this I had a gun to my head and I was bugged."  
  
Spiked blinked stupidly at the cryptic statement and completely missed the woman's smirk.  
  
"Where are we going?" Spike asked when he'd caught his breath. He was having some second thoughts. Hadn't they taught him in kindergarten not to get into cars with strangers?  
  
"Morpheus." Neo answered. Spike's gut did a bit of a flip as his mind went into overdrive. This wasn't some strange dream. This was real.  
  
"Ok," Spike said, trying to regain some sense of reality and balance. He felt jittery. Like he'd had too much coffee and was now wired. He had to calm himself. He was going to see the man with answers. Basics first. If this guy was with Morpheus, then maybe he knew what had happened to Syzygy.  
  
"What happened to Syzygy?" Spike asked, proud that his voice wasn't shaking too badly. He could be professional.  
  
"Syzygy is safe. Morpheus can tell you the rest," the man told him kindly.  
  
"What is the Matrix?" Spike blurted, instantly feeling like a little kid. So much for professionalism. Neo and the woman smiled.  
  
"He cuts right to the chase doesn't he?" the woman asked. The man nodded.  
  
"That is something that I am definitely going to let Morpheus answer," the man told him. "Relax, we're almost there." The man sat back in the seat and almost seemed to be enjoying the ride.  
  
"Who are you then?" Spike asked.  
  
"I'm Neo," the man said with a small shrug, as if it wasn't important that he was an up and coming person on the ten-most-wanted terrorist list.  
  
"You're kidding," Spike said. Morpheus and Neo? It was almost too much to believe. Almost.  
  
"Nope, not kidding."  
  
The rest of the short ride passed in silence as Spike wondered what he'd gotten himself into.  
  
"We're here," Neo said as the car slowed.  
  
The car pulled up next to an old abandoned banquet hall at the edge of town. Spike, Neo and the woman got out. Spike did a double take. The woman looked like she had walked directly out of an anime. She was dressed from head to toe in black leather and wore an impressive looking gun in each of two thigh holsters. Her eyes were shielded by an expensive looking pair of sunglasses and her jet hair was slicked back and stylish. All the black set off her perfect ivory skin. God, was he drooling?  
  
"Who are you?" Spike asked in a small voice. Neo chuckled and the woman's lips twitched upwards slightly.  
  
"I'm Trinity," she said simply and held the door open. Spike blinked.  
  
"Trinity? The Trinity?" he asked, eyes widening. For some reason this made Neo laugh harder. The older man pushed Spike along towards the doors.  
  
"Yes," Trinity answered.  
  
"I- I thought you were a guy!" Spike protested.  
  
"Yeah, she gets that a lot," Neo patted Spike on the shoulder and, smirking, walked through the set of double doors leaving Spike with the leather clad warrior-woman. Spike and Trinity followed him into the building and walked in silence down a small hallway after Neo. Spike watched, impressed, as Neo's unusual but oh-so-cool coat billowed out behind him like a cape. Damn, it was awesome. Neo stopped at a set of dilapidated-looking doors, shared a look with Trinity, then pushed his way inside. Trinity stopped Spike before the doors.  
  
"Spike, be honest. With him, with yourself," Trinity instructed. Spike nodded dumbly. Hell, he'd do anything she asked. Trinity indicated the door. Spike took the hint and walked into the dusty room. A tall black man stood next to a shabby red leather chair. His clothing was even more impressive than the outfit Neo wore - Trinity was in a class entirely her own. The alligator leather duster was awesome, the suit underneath clean cut and impressive. The coolest part of all were the mirrored sunglasses with no ear pieces. How totally cool was that? Spike felt underdressed in his beat up, baggy jean shorts and t-shirt.  
  
"Spike," The dark man greeted, stepping forward a few steps and offering his hand.  
  
"Morpheus?" Spike asked as he shook the man's hand. Morpheus nodded. Trinity exited through another set of doors, distracting Spike from the infamous terrorist/hacker. Spike couldn't help but watch Trinity step from the room. Damn, but she had a nice ass, he secretly thought.  
  
"Please have a seat," Morpheus said.  
  
Spike jolted out of his reverie and sat down in the huge chair; the leather squeaked and crunched as the chair took his weight. The forgotten phone in his pocket dug into his side uncomfortably and he wondered if he should give it back. Morpheus sat across from him and relaxed into the chair.  
  
"Do you know why you are here?" Morpheus asked.  
  
"Someone was trying to get me, because I asked what the Matrix was - because I went searching for it." Spike replied.  
  
Morpheus nodded, "And what did you find?"  
  
"The Matrix is out there. I still have no idea what it is, but it has me, and I don't like that." Spike answered honestly, following Trinity's advice. "I don't like the idea of being controlled by something I don't even know exists."  
  
"The Matrix is control, you are quite correct. It's something you cannot see or feel or even taste. Like the air around you, the Matrix is all around you. Though you cannot feel it, it is always there. And because of that, I cannot tell you what it is." Morpheus paused for a moment.  
  
"However, I can show you. But if I do, you cannot go back to the way things were; I cannot undo that knowledge. " Morpheus opened a small case and withdrew the contents. He held out a hand. Inside his palm was a shiny blue pill. It glittered in the overhead light.  
  
"You take the blue pill, and you wake up at summer camp and believe whatever you want to believe. You'll be safe and sound and you will not have to worry about us contacting you again nor the agents of the system trying to get you."  
  
"Agents of the system? That's who was coming for me, wasn't it? Did they come for Syzygy?"  
  
"They did. However, they did not get your friend," Morpheus assured the young hacker. Spike relaxed a bit. Even if Syz hadn't come online, he was safe someplace. Morpheus opened his other hand, revealing a similar red pill that glinted under the electronic light.  
  
"If you take the red pill, I show you the truth of the Matrix." Morpheus intoned. "I offer nothing more and nothing less. But I will tell you this, though it might set you free, the truth is hard. Once you learn the truth, you can never go back." The dark man's words sent a slight shiver up Spike's spine, fear and excitement creating a heady mixture.  
  
"Never go back? As in never go back home?" Spike asked. The dark man nodded grimly.  
  
Spike looked at the pills and weighted the pros and cons of taking each. Were they drugs? Should he really trust this guy? The news sites said he was a terrorist as well as a hacker. Was he being recruited? His parents were severely annoying, but they were his parents and he supposed he did love them.  
  
But he'd been hacked so effortlessly! Maybe they'd teach him how to do that. The thought of never going back home was sort of unsettling. But the thought of the truth, the real truth, was thrilling. This was big, Spike could feel it. The situation was supremely surreal yet it resonated with rightness in a way that few other things in his life ever had.  
  
"Did Syzygy take the Red pill? Did you offer it to him?" Spike asked. He decided he would feel much better if his friend had taken the pill as well.  
  
"This is a decision you must make on your own," Morpheus told him, giving no indication of how his friend had decided or even if his friend had been given the choice.  
  
"What are they? What's in them?" Spike asked. He was intrigued, but he wasn't going to take anything until he knew what it was. Spike looked up, waiting for an answer. Morpheus smiled slightly.  
  
"They are both programs," he said simply.  
  
"Programs?" Spike asked. Morpheus nodded, grin broadening slightly.  
  
Mind reeling slightly, Spike nodded at looked at the glittering pills again. Blue would leave him safely in his own life. But Red. Red was the wonderfully dangerous prospect of a new life. It was frightening. It was thrilling.  
  
It was real  
  
Spike breathing deeply, took the red pill from Morpheus. A glass filled with water was on a table next to him. Spike took another calming breath and swallowed the pill, washing it down with the cool water.  
  
"Come with me," Morpheus stood and Spike followed him through the door which Trinity had exited through. A weird looking chair had been set up to one side. Trinity was busily typing away at an equally bizarre computer setup. Neo patted Spike on the shoulder reassuringly and guided him to the chair.  
  
"This is going to be a lot weird," Neo told him with a slight smile and began attaching electrodes to Spike's head and chest.  
  
"a lot weird?" Spike gulped.  
  
"Weird," Neo confirmed. "But don't worry."  
  
"Right. Don't worry, he says," Spike muttered and was gratified to hear Trinity chuckle as she typed away. He watched her type, trying to read the code on the screen. The temperature was dropping in the room and he felt sort of fuzzy. The letters and numbers soon started floating out of the screen and around the room.  
  
"Whoa, Trippy," Spike said. He reached out to touch a floating letter. The letter attached to his hand and began sliding up his arm. "Whoa!" Spike jumped back in his seat and tried to wipe the letter off.  
  
"It's ok," Neo said, "its all part of the process."  
  
"The trace program is just about done. We have a lock." Trinity said.  
  
"Operator?" Morpehus asked on his cell. Spike wondered why Morpheus was talking to an operator when he was clearly dying in this chair. The trippy stuff was cold. So damn cold. And suddenly everything went black.  
  
Spike opened his eyes. Everything was a fleshy pink color. Shocked, he thrashed around, and began choking on whatever the hell it was that was shoved down his throat. He couldn't breathe and he thrashed more. His hands broke through the slimy whatever he was immersed in. He sat up, then scrambled to pull the thing he was choking on away from his mouth. Sputtering and coughing he withdrew a long black tube and tossed it to the side. Wiping his eyes, he took stock of the situation.  
  
He was naked and freezing in a pod filled with pink.something. He was covered in wires and tubes and the back of his head felt heavy. All around him were other pods with what appeared to be bodies in them. Directly above him was another line of pods. He looked over the side of the tank and saw he was impossibly high up on a tower studded with the body pod things. Great arcs of electricity jumped between the towers Spike winced at the sharp sound and bright light. The world looked like something out of an HR.R. Geiger art book; bio-mechanical and alien. Spike's stomach heaved but there was nothing for him to throw up.  
  
Something from a nightmarish science fiction movie arrived. The floating robot grabbed Spike by the neck. He heard a whirring behind him and felt something being withdrawn from his head with the rasp of metal on metal. Spike was released and he flopped into the pink sludge again. When he sat up again the robot was gone.  
  
Suddenly the tubes started to painfully pop free with little hisses, the force unseating him in the slippery pod. The back of the pod opened and he was flushed out down a rough metal pipe. Spike tried to scream but found he could only manage a harsh wheeze. Then he was free-falling: arms flailing, legs kicking, the world in slow motion. Then, just as suddenly as he had become airborne, he hit icy water. Spike struggled to swim but the current was strong and he was strangely weak.  
  
Just as he was sure he was about to die, Spike was grabbed and then lifted out of the disgusting water towards a light. Dazedly he wondered what could possibly present itself next in this nightmarish reality; aliens, perhaps?  
  
Firm hands grabbed him and removed the cold metal claw from around his body. Voices murmured comforting sounds as Spike emptied his stomach of the nasty water. He was picked up in warm towels and placed on a metal table, more warm towels wrapping him tightly in place like a baby. Spike didn't think he'd felt more secure in his life and relaxed slightly. Why the hell was he so tired and what was going on? Spike squinted in the too-bright light, trying to make sense of the world.  
  
"Spike?" A familiar voice asked. Neo?  
  
"What the hell happened?" Spike asked, turning his head in the general direction Neo's voice had come from. He was distantly surprised by how rough his voice was and by how much the words seemed to vibrate in his throat.  
  
"You're free now, Spike," Neo told him. Free? "You're out of the matrix," Neo clarified.  
  
"So.where am I?" Spike asked, fighting to stay awake.  
  
"Welcome," Spike turned to see Morpheus loom into view, "To the real world."  
  
And the real world faded into a cozy blackness. 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: more thanks, Oracle cookies and Neo plushies to Mussed, the Uber editor.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Spike faded in and out of consciousness. The only thing constant was the terribly bright light above his head and the cool table under his back. Sometimes there were shadowy figures working around him, talking softly out of view. Other times, they were working over and around him, poking and prodding. Once he woke up covered in little needles which made his muscles twitch uncomfortably. Each time he woke he was told to go back to sleep, and he did, wondering briefly what exactly was going on and why he was so tired.  
  
When Spike woke this time, the room was dark. Had they finally turned off the damn light? He reached up to wipe the sleep from his eyes. Something was attached to his left arm. He held his arm in front of his face and focused on his wrist. A clear tube was attached to a strange sort of metal thing. Spike tugged at it experimentally. The tube was connected to something inside his wrist which moved minutely. The feeling was weird and the thought of something staying under his skin made him uncomfortable so he left the IV like thing alone. He examined the metal on his arm and remembered the tubes popping off his body and the stabbing pain each time one separated. He squinted at the sleeve of the sweater he wore. It was green and worn and he was sure he'd never seen it before. He started to pull back his sleeve further when the door swung open with a metallic squeal. Spike forgot about examining his arm and sat up.  
  
"Hmm, We'll have to oil that." Neo stood in the doorway. He swung the door experimentally a few times, listening to the different squeaks it made. Spike watched him, hardly believing that this was the same person. For one thing, his clothing was a far cry from what Spike had last seen him wearing Neo was dressed in what looked like hand-me-downs from head to toe. He wore an oversized sweater which appeared old but clean and may have been blue at one point. His pants were baggy and patched and he wore heavy boots which looked like they'd just come from an army surplus store. Neo's presence was also different: somehow he was now more.tangible? Spike's sleepy mind couldn't even begin to figure it out.  
  
"Morning." Neo shut the door with a final squeak and stepped into the room. "Let me take that IV out." Neo sat next to Spike, took his wrist and withdrew a long metal needle from the strange implant. Neo unhooked the IV fluid bag from the wall and folded the long tube around it a few times as Spike watched.  
  
"What is this?" Spike asked, holding his wrist with the metal implant out for Neo to see.  
  
"It's a plug socket," Neo said, setting the IV bag down. He pulled back the sleeve of his sweater to reveal his own metal plug. Neo pulled the sleeve further to show one higher up on his arm. "Everyone who was born in the Matrix has them. They're located on the major arteries and on key junctions on the central nervous system so they're not exactly the same for everyone." Neo pushed his sleeve back down. "They take awhile to get used to, but you will. The biggest one is on the back of your head."  
  
Spike tentatively felt the back of his head and was aware of two things at once. First, his head had been shaved. It felt like the military fade his father had insisted Spike and his brothers get when they traveled to visit his ex-marine grandfather. Second, and more importantly, a huge metal disk was attached to his it.  
  
"The hell is that?" Spike asked, alarmed. That thing hadn't been there this morning.had everything happened to him only that morning? Neo turned around and pushed his dark hair out of the way to reveal his own plug, momentarily distracting Spike  
  
"I have one too. It's the main data plug. Do you remember the power plant? The place you woke up in?" Neo paused as Spike nodded, shuddering as he remembered the hellish place. He hoped it'd been a nightmare.  
  
"All the plugs were connected to the plant. Most fed your body. The big one fed your mind." Neo shrugged. "So I guess you're wondering just what's going on, right?" Neo asked. Spike thought it was an extreme understatement and nodded mutely.  
  
"Well, first," Neo said, "It's not 2000. We're not sure, but we think it's 2200. There was a war between humans and machines and we didn't exactly come out on top. This place," Neo said as he gave the metal hull a tap, "is a hovership called the Nebuchadnezzar. Morpheus is her captain and he'd be here talking to you himself, but he had to jack in and make a drop at the last moment.  
  
Almost none of what Neo was saying was making any sense to Spike. Machine wars? Hoverships? Morpheus was a captain of some sort on top of being a hacker and terrorist? And furthermore, he wasn't here to give Spike the answers he'd promised? What. The. Fuck.  
  
He should be back any minute now. Come on." Neo smiled and stood. "I'll give you the five-cent tour. When Morpheus gets back he'll tell you everything, ok?"  
  
"Ok." Spike felt his rising anger lessen somewhat. Morpheus would be back soon and then he'd get concrete answers. Neo was nice enough, but he wasn't doing a good job explaining what the hell was going on. For now, he could live with following Neo around this "Nubuchadnezzar place. Spike rose to his feet and for the first time noticed how the sweater hung loosely on him.  
  
"Oh my god!" Spike exclaimed.  
  
"What?" Neo asked, expression concerned.  
  
"I'm thin!" Spike said, awed and confused. "How long was I out?" he asked, patting his chest and feeling his ribs, examining just how bony his wrists were now.  
  
"You were out for about three weeks," Neo told him with a small smile. "In the power plant, you didn't get more food than anyone else, but your mind thought you did, so you thought of yourself as overweight." Neo shrugged. "Everyone comes out malnourished. You'll bulk up a bit, especially on Zion food. Come on."  
  
Spike numbly followed Neo through the porthole into a small corridor. The harsh light drew his attention away from his nearly skeletal physique to the real world. It was like someone had suddenly pushed aside the curtain of fog clouding his mind. He finally processed everything he'd been told and stopped mid-stride, in shock. Neo, realizing he wasn't being followed anymore, stopped and turned.  
  
"Spike?"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait." Spike waved his hands around, as his mind tried to get a mental grasp on this new reality. "There was a war and we lost? So, what? And what the hell was that power plant you called it? How can I be in a power plant? I'm not electric," Spike said then his eyes grew large, "Am I?" Horrific visions of cutting his hand only to see not blood but thick white liquid seep out and plastic flesh covering cogs, tubing and wires, like in the movie Alien, filled his head. Neo shook his head with a small chuckle.  
  
"We're not machines; don't worry about rusting or anything." Spike relaxed marginally. Neo ran a hand though his dark hair and looked extremely uncomfortable.  
  
"Look," he said, "I really shouldn't be the one explaining any of this since I haven't been unplugged that long myself. Let's go see Morpheus. He's really the one that's supposed to tell you everything."  
  
"Ok," Spike agreed. He was getting slightly annoyed by the lack of answers, but everything was so different and bizarre that he didn't feel like he could do much about it. Spike silently followed at Neo's heels thought submarine-like corridor.  
  
"This is the Mess," Neo gestured into a smallish room which included a table, some benches and what looked like a kitchenette. Further down the hallway was a room filled with various monitors, metal trays, stethoscopes hung on a hook, a clear box of what looked like gauze and a faint antiseptic smell. The table Spike had become so well acquainted with stood in the center of the tidy room.  
  
"Sickbay?" Spike asked. Neo nodded.  
  
"Yeah. Like I said, you were there for a few weeks. We don't really get to use our muscles in the power plant, so we had to rebuild those. We also took out a few of the smaller plugs you don't need."  
  
"What was with the light?" Spike asked, sort of annoyed. He'd hated that thing.  
  
"Well, you'd never used your eyes either, so that was one reason. The other was to make your body produce vitamin D. We take supplements too, but this gives your natural system a kick start. It's sort of annoying, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," Spike agreed. He could tell Neo was trying to be nice, though he seemed unsure of what to say or do. Spike's anger was tempered a bit by Neo's kindness, but he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to hold off on demanding answers.  
  
Further down the hallway, the ceiling became heavy metal grating and there was a hole in the ceiling with a ladder through it. Neo climbed the ladder and Spike followed. The ladder led to an open room on the deck above.  
  
"This is the main deck, and over here is the Core," Neo said.  
  
'The Core' was a longish area filled with computer banks and worn metal grids. Looking up, Spike saw hanging cables and a long metal catwalk. To one side there was a cluster of flat panel monitors filled with falling green code. He remembered the ever-changing code from when he'd been in the abandoned building. A dark-skinned man with really impressive dreadlocks sat in a chair facing the computers. He gave Neo a nod before returning back to whatever he was doing. On a lower level, another man stood next to what looked like a row of dentist's chairs. Morpheus was sleeping in one. Well, he looked like he was sleeping. The entire setup was creepy but looking around at the men in the room, he realized he was the only one who felt unnerved by the setup. Neo and the others seemed fairly relaxed and intent on their tasks. Spike drew a small amount of comfort from that and tried to force down a sudden panic attack.  
  
"When is he coming back?" Neo asked.  
  
"He's just on his way now," the dark skinned man replied. Spike was confused now, panicky feelings gone. Back? From where? Morpheus was sitting right there, wasn't he? Or were they talking about someone else? But then Neo had said that Morpheus was gone.  
  
Morpheus opened his eyes and the guy standing next to him seemed to unhook something from the back of the chair. The chair moved from its reclined position and Morpheus sat up and looked around. His eyes fell on Spike and the man smiled.  
  
"Good morning, Spike. I'm sorry I wasn't available when you woke up, but I had an unexpected matter to attend to."  
  
"That's ok," Spike said, feeling as if he had to say something.  
  
"Please, have a seat," Morpheus gestured to the dentist's chair directly opposite him. Spike walked over and sat down. "This is Tank." Morpheus gestured to the man standing next to him. "His brother-in-law Link is working behind you. You know Neo. Trinity is busy with other duties at the moment."  
  
"Hi," Spike said quietly. The men nodded back.  
  
"I expect you'd like to know what is going on?" Morpheus gestured to the ship and set up around them. Spike nodded mutely. "And I expect you wish to know what the Matrix is?" Spike nodded again.  
  
"What is this place? Why do I have these things in my arms? There was a war, with machines? I don't understand." Spike shook his head. Morpheus nodded in understanding and Spike felt a bit better.  
  
"The Matrix is a fully interactive program most of humanity is directly connected to. You've noticed the plug in the back of your head? That is the main data port which allows the machines to feed whatever sensation they want into our minds." Morpheus held up a stalling hand as Spike opened his mouth to ask a question.  
  
"What is sensation but the result of electrical stimulation sent to the brain? The machines learned how to manipulate input into our brains in such a way that we feel as if we are truly in the real world when we are actually just plugged into the Matrix. Since humans born directly into the Matrix have nothing for comparison, no real experienced sensation of running through a field or smelling a flower or the sun on our face, we cannot tell the difference until we are unplugged."  
  
Spike thought about that for a moment as Morpheus' voice trailed off. It made sense, in a sick and frightening way. If he'd never really done any of those things, how would he really know what they felt like? Just thinking about it made his head hurt. This was some upper-level philosophical stuff and Spike had never really cared for any of that.  
  
"Why is there a Matrix? If we lost a war, why aren't we all dead?"  
  
"In the early twentieth century, humanity created Artificial Intelligence. From this, a whole generation of machines was created. We don't have the details, but war broke out. We blacked out the sky, hoping to deprive the machines of their power source, the sun. Unfortunately the machines were far more adaptive than anyone expected and they found a new power source, us."  
  
"Us?" Spike asked, amazed and appalled.  
  
"A human generates both electrical energy and body heat. The machines found a way to harness this energy and, with a form of fusion, use it, to replace their dependence on the sun."  
  
"So I really was in a power plant?" Spike asked, looking from Neo to Morpheus. Both men nodded back grimly.  
  
"But why keep us in a- a giant, virtual reality, MUSH?"  
  
"We think it is because the human mind needs to be kept occupied otherwise it rejects the system. We have also learned that the world had to be modeled very closely to what once actually existed for humans to accept it. Apparently, prior versions of the Matrix, ones that came closer to the Utopian vision, were not as successful as the current one and many people died."  
  
"I don't know if I can believe this," Spike said after a moment's contemplation. Spike could easily understand and even believe that humanity had massively screwed up, but a small, optimistic part of him didn't want to accept what he was being told.  
  
"Sit back," Morpheus directed, "I'll show you." Spike eyed him warily but then settled back in the seat. Neo walked over to him and began fiddling with the equipment around the chair. Tank strapped Spike's feet into the chair's footrests and gave him an encouraging smile. His head was pushed back against the headrest by Neo.  
  
"If this is a 'a lot weird' like last time was, I am seriously going to flip out on someone," Spike told Neo. Then the data spike was sliding into his head and Spike had the strangest sensation of being disconnected from his body before slamming back into it.  
  
"Ow." Spike rubbed the back of his head and then froze. His plug was gone and his hair had returned. Spike looked down. He was fat again and was in the same clothing he'd been wearing before he'd been unplugged. "The Hell?"  
  
"What you are seeing now is what we call your RSI, your Residual Self Image," Morpheus said. Spike whirled around to face him. Morpheus was dressed the same way he'd been when Spike had first met him. The alligator coat was slung casually over one shoulder and he was leaning against one of the shabby red leather chairs like he was posting for hacker GQ or something.  
  
"I'm fat," Spike replied. Even if the world had gone to hell, being thin had been a definite perk for him personally and he was not happy to be husky again.  
  
"That is because you still think of yourself that way."  
  
"So what? Mind over matter? I just think the pounds away? What gives?" Spike knew he was being indignant and probably rude but he didn't really care at the moment. In fact, his feelings were fully justified. If he'd been lied to his entire life, he was due some serious anger and annoyance.  
  
"You spent your entire life thinking of yourself as looking this way so your mental image of yourself reflects that. Your RSI will adjust to your real world appearance but it is not an automatic process."  
  
"Will the metal stuff ever show up here?" Spike asked, calming slightly.  
  
"Usually they don't show up. Sometimes, after someone has been unplugged for a very long time, they do appear. Then it is a matter of writing some cosmetic adjustment programs much like what we use to alter our clothing or equipment."  
  
"Is this the Matrix? It's awfully. white."  
  
"This is the Construct. It's a loading program, a staging area. Here we equip ourselves with whatever we need before we enter the Matrix. Guns, clothing, phones, even cars. It is a program, much like the Matrix, but it is not controlled by the machines."  
  
"How do I know I'm not dreaming now? How do I know this isn't some elaborate hoax? You said yourself that my brain can be fooled by a computer. I buy that. How do I know I'm not being fooled now?" Spike asked. Morpheus smiled.  
  
"Do you feel like you are dreaming? Is this like sitting in the Core?" Morpheus asked, enigmatic, Cheshire cat smile wide. Spike stopped to consider his surroundings.  
  
"This is different," Spike had to admit after a moment. In here, nothing felt as real as it had while he'd been sitting in the Core. Spike felt the leather of the red chairs. It was almost like the worn leather of the dentist chair his body was sitting in, but not quite. This was real. Well, it wasn't real, it was a program. The situation was real. Great, now he was talking to himself. At least it wasn't out loud. Man this was messed up. A program! He was inside a program! Spike smirked and let out a small laugh. Seeing Morpheus' questioning quirk of eyebrow Spike slumped in the chair and explained.  
  
"You know, all my life I've felt I've been in some sort of dream and I've been just going along with everything, going through the motions. My parents made me talk to the school's guidance counselor and he said: 'Life isn't a video game, son. There isn't a reset button here. What you do here really matters." Sort of ironic that I really was living in a program, isn't it?"  
  
"It is, indeed." Morpheus said as he sat in the other chair. "Would you like to see what the real world looks like now?"  
  
"It's some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland, right?" Spike asked. The way the story was going, it almost had to be. Morpheus produced a remote from somewhere and the TV flashed to life.  
  
"This is the real world. It's mostly desert and ruined city sprawl." As Spike watched, the TV seemed to grow and fade as the world around them faded from white into rocky landscape. The sky was filled with rolling grey clouds. Lightning flashed along the surface of the cloud cover like the foam of breaking waves. The skeletal remains of what must have once been huge buildings reached towards the equally ruined sky. What city was he in? None of the landmarks he was familiar with from TV or Movies were present. "Where are we?" Spike asked.  
  
"This is what the ruins of Chicago look like." Morpheus nodded his head off to the left. "Shall we take a walk?"  
  
"OK." The desolate landscape was depressing and awful. The simulated air was filled with the smell of ozone and dust and crackled along Spike's skin. Except for the dust and the chilly air, it wasn't unlike being outside just before a summer thunderstorm.  
  
"This is a simulation too, right?" Spike asked. Intellectually he knew it was, but the ground crunched under his feet and the wind tousled his hair in such familiar ways. Spike even felt a little cold. He stole a glance at Morpheus. The bald man has left his duster behind on the chairs and seemed unaffected by the chill.  
  
"Its is a simulation created from footage about a year old, but not much has changed since then according to our scouts." They turned a corner and Spike could hear the soft lapping of water over the low creaking of aged steel and the soft crunch of debris under their feet. "Most of the world's cities look like this now. Some are merely radioactive fields of rock and glass in the shape of the city's footprint. The cities that resisted the most were blasted the worst it seems. New York, Moscow, Brussels, Tokyo, London to name a few. Some cities were abandoned as people fled the machines. It is said that when the machines came, only a few thousand people were left in Cairo, Denver and Paris. Everyone had fled into the countryside."  
  
"Did those people escape?" Spike asked. They climbed a crest and could now see the lake stretching out before them, as grey as the sky it reflected.  
  
"Some did. Some found their way to the underground tunnel system which housed the sewers for the cities above. Others found habitable rock caverns and carved vast cave systems. Those people became the founders and citizens of the underground cities. Avalon, Shangri-la, El Dorado, and Lemuria were a few that we know existed. Still others created fortified cities in remote places, hoping to be spared by the machines; the floating city of Atlantis, for example, was built in the middle of the Atlantic."  
  
"I thought those cities were all legends?"  
  
"They might have been legends people named their cities after." Morpheus turned from the view of the lake and Spike met his gaze. "Then again they might be the cities the legends came from." A chill ran up Spike's spine. The implications were terrifying.  
  
"Are those cities still around?"  
  
"No." Morpheus turned back to the lake. "They were all destroyed by the machines once they were found. Together, the survivors founded Zion."  
  
"Is that one still around?" Spike asked.  
  
"Zion is the last human city."  
  
"The last?" Spike asked. Morpheus nodded. Spike shivered, and not from the cold.  
  
"The planet isn't entirely dead, Spike." Morpheus pointed to the remains of what might have been a park. Blasted steel and concrete had ripped a scar through what had once been some dense foliage, killing many of the trees. A few pathetic looking specimens clung to life close to the water's edge. Spike could make out movement there. A rat scurried out from under a ruined slab of concrete, chased by a skinny cat. The pair dashed off into the distance.  
  
"We know there are a number of animals left on the surface of the planet. There are even a few species of plant which have actually begun to thrive in this," he gestured around. "We know there are fish still in the seas and even in some of the rivers." Spike nodded and looked out over the ruins of the city. Finally he had to look away.  
  
"This place is like a graveyard. Can we leave?" The silence too, was getting to him.  
  
"Tank," Morpheus called into the air, "Bring us out."  
  
In an instant, Spike was both there and not there. Then he was sitting in the chair and aware of the sound of the ship around him. He felt the odd sensation of the plug leaving his head and the metallic sound it made. The chair moved into a sitting position and Spike ran a hand over his face over his short, stubby hair and back to the data plug on his head. He looked at his hands and saw bony wrists once again. That would take some getting used to.  
  
Morpheus sat across from Spike, seemingly awaiting his reaction. Spike tried to wrap his mind around everything he'd just witnessed. He was now free of an interactive group hallucination called the Matrix, the world was pretty much blasted into wasteland and killer robots ruled the earth.  
  
"This sucks." Not poetic by any means, but it summed everything up rather nicely. "I can't go back, right?" Spike asked. Morpheus nodded solemnly. "OK. I can deal with that. No one would believe me even if I could. I mean people are so messed up even in the Matrix, so I can believe we screwed ourselves over royally. People have always talked about stuff like this happening. Half of the plotlines for the Twilight Zone are like this." Spike rubbed his hand across his face again. He felt tired and drained. "This is going to take some getting used to." Spike admitted. Morpheus nodded again.  
  
"Why don't you head back to your cabin and rest there. You're probably tired and this is a lot of unpleasant information to take in."  
  
"Sure," Spike said as he slid out of his seat. "Where do I live again?"  
  
"I'll show you," Neo said. Spike nodded and followed Neo back they way they'd come.  
  
"This is my cabin," Neo pointed out one of the doors. Spike noted where it was in relation to the Mess. "If you need anything, you can knock on my door."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The door behind Neo opened and Trinity stepped out. She quietly closed the door behind her, lips quirking into a small smile when she spotted Spike.  
  
"Hello Spike," she said, sending Spike's heart racing. Like Neo, she was different in the real world. She wasn't wearing anything flashy or tight and her hair was slightly tousled instead of slicked back. But Trinity was still utterly gorgeous, although in a different, more natural way. Without the sunglasses Spike could see she had amazing eyes. His already addled brain slowed to a halt as he gaped.  
  
"I'll got get a mop and drool bucket for the newbie," Neo quipped lightly for Trinity's benefit. Trinity sent him a mock glare over Spike's shoulder. Spike had barely heard Neo as he was quite busy trying to remember how to speak.  
  
"I- Er-" Spike stuttered. "Hi," he finished lamely, feeling like the world's biggest idiot. There followed an uncomfortable silence in which Spike wracked his brain for something intelligent or witty to say and came up with nothing.  
  
"Are you ok?" Neo asked after a moment. He actually sounded concerned. Spike nodded then shook his head.  
  
"No. I'm- I-. I think I'll just go now," Spike said, kicking himself for not being more eloquent.  
  
"You've had a lot to deal with. Go take a nap and call or come find us if you need anything, ok?" Trinity said. Spike nodded dumbly and slipped into his cabin, quickly closing the door. He winced as he heard Neo through the metal.  
  
"I think he likes you, Trin."  
  
Spike groaned and flopped onto the bed.  
  
**************************  
  
Syzygy pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders and resumed hugging her knees. It was cold here, always so cold. She'd been told it would get better when she gained more body weight. Neo had remarked that Zion was exceedingly hot in some places - the city was powered by geothermal energy and there were open pools of magma in several areas. Syzygy whished she was there now, not hiding in her room, which, as much as she might want to deny it, was exactly what she was doing. Spike had finally shown signs of waking up and she'd run and hid in her room. She nearly had had a heart attack a few minutes later when her door had opened.  
  
But Trinity, not Spike, had entered and Syzygy had relaxed marginally for a moment before tensing up again, awaiting the reprimand for cowardice which was no doubt coming. Syzygy got the distinct impression that Trinity didn't suffer fools gladly, and loathe as she was to admit it, she was acting foolishly. And one thing she did not want to do was act like a fool in front of Trinity. Syzygy respected Link and Tank a great deal, but she was in total awe of the Neb's fighters. Especially Trinity.  
  
Morpheus had enticed her with hints about the Matrix. He'd captured her interest and she'd followed his trail across the internet and into some places she wasn't supposed to know about, let alone go into. Then he'd contacted her, warned her about the men in dark suits she now knew were agents. She'd run downstairs and screamed in horror as her parents morphed and twisted into men with dark sunglasses and guns  
  
It was Trinity who'd come to a screeching halt on a black motorcycle, hauled a shaken Syzygy behind her and then sped off, agents firing shots after them. The Agents had caught up with the speeding bike just before they'd reached the abandoned warehouse they'd been heading for. The programs had missed the bike's riders, but not the bike itself. Syzygy would have surely died if Trinity hadn't somehow grabbed her and hauled her sorry ass to safety once again as the bike exploded under them. Then the Agents had attacked: their guns spent or kicked away, they'd both fought Trinity hand to hand. Even now Syzygy's mind couldn't comprehend the physics defying movements of the warrior woman as she fought off the agents in the street. Then Neo had arrived.  
  
He'd fucking flown in and kicked ass until no one was left. If Trinity defied the laws of physics, Neo simply seemed to ignore them altogether. With the agents gone, Syzygy had thought she was safe. Then she felt the mind wrenching sensation of confused twisting which was ended only by the sharp, painful, clarity of Trinity's knife along her thigh.  
  
She'd barely registered the woman's hastily offered regret at having to cut her, but she heard and understood that it - that anything - was better than being taken over by an agent.  
  
Finally there had come the stumbling way into the warehouse where Morpheus, god of dreams, awaited, ready to wake her up. Syzygy had swallowed the red pill dry.  
  
Recent history flashed though Syzygy's mind while she waited for Trinity to berate her for avoiding the other newbie. But Trinity never said anything.  
  
Instead, Trinity calmly sat on the far side of Syzygy's bed and began arranging some of the fabric she'd entered with on her lap. Syzygy watched with mixed emotion as Trinity carefully took out a needle and thread from a case and began to repair a tear in a sweater.  
  
A small, logical part of Syzygy reasoned that of course she'd have to fix her clothing herself. Wal-mart probably hadn't survived the machine's holocaust, so going out to get another shirt for $5.99 wasn't an option. But another part of Syzygy's ranted and raved against the image of Trinity, thus far the epitome of liberated femininity, doing something as mundane and domestic as sewing.  
  
She watched Trinity's fingers deftly weave the thread through the garment, closing the hole with neat stitches. Trinity finished her work, examined it for a moment then tied off the thread and cut it with a small pair of scissors from the case. Without comment, Trinity folded the sweater and picked up another one. Syzygy watched the needle flash in the dim light of her room for a few minutes until, finally, the silence became unbearable.  
  
"Aren't you going to say something?" Syzygy finally asked. The older woman's eyebrow arched, but Trinity kept her eyes on her task.  
  
"Say something about what?"  
  
"About why I'm in here and not out there?"  
  
"Ah."  
  
Ah? That was all she was going to say? Syzygy stewed for a moment, trying to see what Trinity was doing. Was this some sort of elaborate ploy to get her to run out there and declare to the wide world that she was female? That she'd lied to who were probably some of her closest friends even if she'd never met them in real life (or at least in the frighteningly real facsimile of real life she'd been living)? That she'd betrayed her gender by pretending?  
  
"You know," Trinity mused as she examined her stitches along an unraveled seam, "when I first met Neo, he was surprised I was a woman." Trinity glanced over at Syzygy before returning to her task. Syzygy blinked. Well, that wasn't so far-fetched, she thought. After all, the hacking community was dominated by men. Some guys even took special pains to target who attempted to join the hacking community, the way F33r targeted lamers and newbies. Syzygy herself had always wondered why a guy had chosen such a feminine handle and had written 'him' off as either super religious or someone poking fun at the super religious, the way F33r poked fun at 1337- speaking posers.  
  
Syzygy had been more pleased than surprised to find out that the notorious Trinity was a woman who, in addition to being an amazing hacker, could kick some serious ass.  
  
"Syzygy."  
  
Syzygy withdrew from her musings and focused on Trinity, meeting her eyes. Trinity had folded the clothes and they now rested in a pile in the middle of the bed.  
  
"You aren't the only one who has ever pretended to be a guy online. You're not the first to." Trinity trailed off, a hint of a smile playing at her lips, "omit certain things."  
  
"It was easier." Syzygy muttered. She let go of her knees and moved to sit cross-legged on the bed. "It started as a game, ya know?"  
  
"And then you realized most of the guys treated you differently when they thought they were talking with another guy, right?" Trinity asked, her tone wry. Syzygy nodded.  
  
"Yeah! I couldn't believe it. I was kinda pissed. But at the same time no one blew me off. And the guys are such pigs! Some of the stuff they said? I know for a fact they cleaned up when they thought a girl was around. I wanted to yell, "hey! I'm a girl! You guys are complete idiots! But." Syzygy trailed off with a shrug.  
  
"I know." Trinity nodded. "I've been there too. Spike thought I was a guy." Trinity's lips quirked in a smile. Syzygy snickered.  
  
"Yeah? How'd that work out? I mean, no offense, but you look more like one of the anime chicks he probably had on a wall scroll or something than what people think of when they hear 'hacker'." Trinity rolled her eyes.  
  
"To say he was a bit surprised would be an understatement."  
  
"I bet he kept trying to check out your ass," Syzygy stated. Trinity rolled her eyes again, giving Syzygy all the confirmation she needed.  
  
"You'll have to tell him, but I don't know when Morpheus will want you to meet him." Trinity said, getting serious. The light mood left the cabin in an instant and Syzygy sobered. "Being unplugged is a big enough shock; Morpheus doesn't want him to have to deal with too much right away. Finding out that the world you knew isn't real is much bigger than finding out one of your guy friends is actually a girl. But finding out you're female will be a bit more personal, I think."  
  
"Yeah," Syzygy agreed, looking down at her lap.  
  
"He'll probably understand once he has a chance to think about it. That will help with the others, too."  
  
"They got unplugged?" Syzygy asked, looking up. Trinity nodded.  
  
"Not yet. They will be in the next few days if they choose the red pill. The Vigilant has been tracking them for nearby agent activity and we've been in contact as well. Spike was supposed to leave, so they aren't suspicious of him disappearing. We left some emails in your name saying you got grounded, so they're no longer hunting you down."  
  
"Can I talk to them?" Trinity shook her head, and Syzygy's shoulder slumped a bit.  
  
"We can't let you do that. This has to be their own choice. We can't let Spike and your decisions sway them in any way."  
  
"What if they don't take the red pill?"  
  
"The idea was to get all four of you out as a unit. If they don't choose the red pill, at least two of you are unplugged. That's better than nothing. These are for you," Trinity pushed the pile of clothes with the two mended garments on top towards the newbie. "They should fit you a bit better. I have to go. I'm on duty soon. Today you did downloads, and tomorrow morning we're doing more martial arts training, so get a good night's sleep."  
  
"OK." Syzygy nodded. Trinity stood up, slipped the sewing case into a pocket and quietly left the room. Syzygy dimmed her cabin lights and curled up on the bed to try and get some sleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ch 3 - in which my Muse demands light, fluffy things and we find out just why Pop Music sucks so very badly. Many, many, many thanks to Mussed and Danascully who are goddesses and just wonderful people for putting up with my crazy ideas. *gives cookies* Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first two chapters! Once more, for the Hardline, because there's a little Syzygy and Spike in us all ^_^ ******************************************************************* Chapter the Third  
  
The bug-zapper sound of the 'daylight' power kicking in woke Syzygy as it had every morning since the first. She glared sleepily into the darkness of her cabin for a second before the lights snapped on outside in the ship with little clicks. To Tank's good natured amusement and her eternal annoyance, she responded to the lights like she had to her radio alarm in the Matrix - half a second before the damn thing actually went off. Grumbling, Syzygy climbed out of bed and slipped on a pair of pants and one of the new sweaters Trinity had left the night before. She adjusted the dark, woolen hat on her head and willed her hair to grow faster. After stomping into her boots, the only part of her outfit that she actually really liked, she did the early-morning-stumble-and-blink into the corridor. Casting a quick glance towards Spike's door and seeing nothing, she trudged towards the lavatory to splash water on her face before making her way to the mess and sitting down on the bench across from Tank.  
  
"Good morning, Sunshine," he greeted. Syzygy groaned and let her forehead hit the top of the table. She was not a morning person. In fact, she'd noticed that most people on the Neb seemed to be night owls rather than morning people. It was probably related in some way to their shared habit of hacking in the dead of night. Tank however, seemed to be the exception to the rule. Dear God, what an exception. She listened as he began whistling a lighthearted tune, probably to annoy her, and siphoned off a tin of food for her. Christ, even the click of the tin on the table was cheerful.  
  
"Thank you," she muttered as a spork was pressed into her hand. Syzygy sat up and began eating. The stuff wasn't so bad if you didn't think about it and just ate. More importantly, it was filling. "No coffee?" she asked, as she'd asked every day since the early morning ritual had begun. Tank grinned and pushed a carafe and a cup towards her.  
  
"Closest thing we got," he said. Syzygy grunted thanks and poured the tea- colored liquid into the cup. It was hot and it was caffeine and that's what mattered, she supposed, even if the flavor wasn't even close. But man, what she wouldn't have given for a double mocha latte.  
  
"So you said they have bread in Zion, right?" Tank nodded. "And they got the wheat from scavenging old universities and stuff for seed samples, right?" Another nod. "So why haven't they tried to find coffee?" she demanded. Tank grinned and shook his head.  
  
"I will never understand you Matrix-born people. I've tasted coffee flavoring and it's just not that good. Every other one of you is completely addicted to the stuff, but I really don't see what I'm missing."  
  
"You've never tasted real coffee," Trinity muttered from the door. "And it was real," she said, a touch of wistfulness coloring her voice. Tank shook his head with a laugh.  
  
"And the rest of the 'good morning' crew arrives. Morning Trin, Neo." Tank saluted his bleary-eyed crewmates with his spork. Trinity sat down on the bench next to Syzygy and poured two cups of the not-even-close-to-coffee while Neo grabbed breakfast for them both. Syzygy and Trinity scooted down on the bench as Neo joined them. They ate in companionable silence for a few moments before Neo caught Syzygy's eyes.  
  
"So you have training today?" Neo asked. She nodded and swallowed the last bit of breakfast.  
  
"Last I heard," she replied, looking to Trinity for confirmation. The dark- haired woman set her mug down and nodded.  
  
"You're just about finished with downloads. You have s a few of the more exotic vehicle and weapons programs to do, but I doubt you'll be firing off a bazooka in the next day or so. Today we're going to test out that last set of martial arts skills,"  
  
"Do you think she's ready to take on the Matrix?" Neo asked conversationally. Trinity tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she considered her response and Syzygy felt butterflies materialize in the pit of her stomach. Going back was a frightening thought. How different would it be now that she knew the truth? Would she see people she knew?  
  
"We have a run later today. If she passes the jump this time, maybe we can take her," Trinity said with a hint of a smile. Neo grinned back, drawing a wider smile from her.  
  
"Awwwwww," Tank gushed teasingly from the other side of the table, utterly ruining the moment. Trinity's glance was absolutely murderous for about half a second before she rolled her eyes and flung her spork at Tank's head. Tank dodged her spork but was hit in the chest by Neo's instead. "Ow!"  
  
"Come on," Trinity motioned for Syzygy to follow. Neo took her empty tin and stacked it atop Trinity's and his own.  
  
"I have dishes today. Go get your ass kicking," he chuckled. Syzygy muttered quick thanks then scurried after Trinity. She contemplated the jump program as she made her way to the Core. Trinity had made it look so damn easy! She, however, had only managed to get a little more than halfway across before she lost her nerve and the elusive 'it' that made the minds of resistance fighters free, and slammed into the ground. She didn't want to fail a second time.  
  
Three hours later, she wasn't sure she'd even be able to walk again, let alone jump leap tall buildings in a single bound. Even though she realized she wasn't actually doing anything, her muscles still screamed and she knew she had a rather lovely bruise forming on her right side. It hurt like a bitch.  
  
"Take a break," Trinity instructed. Syzygy gratefully sank to the floor with a huff. She was tired and achy, but damn, was she having fun getting her ass handed to her. She'd just mastered running up walls and flipping over to land on her feet. She'd landed a few times on her head but then she'd gotten the hang of it.  
  
"You're getting faster, but you're thinking too much."  
  
Trinity sat across from her, cool and collected in her black gi. Her short hair was tied up in the simple pony tail and while Syzygy's RSI was sweating profusely, Trinity looked as though she'd just been strolling though a Zen garden, not kicking Syzygy's ass up one side of the dojo and down the other. Syzygy wondered when she'd have that much control and skill.  
  
"So, how'd I do today, teach?" Syzygy asked. Trinity considered her for a moment before calling out to Tank to load the jump program. The world around them shifted and changed and they were suddenly sitting on the roof of a building wearing similar tight leather outfits. Syzygy examined her clothing with a certain amount of delight. She'd never had the money to get anything like this and even if she'd had the means, there was no way her parents would have ever let her keep such an outfit .  
  
"Sweet."  
  
Trinity stood with a smirk and waited while Syzygy checked out her new threads. She stood with a grin and looked around at the programmed world, marveling once again at how realistic everything seemed to be.  
  
"It's not real," she told herself. She tried to relax and free her mind the way she'd been taught and sense that there was a program around her.  
  
"Ready?" Trinity asked after a moment. Syzygy's eyes snapped open and she eyed the red brick building across the street. Trinity took two steps and leapt easily over the street. She landed on the other side and turned to wait for Syzygy. Now that Syzygy had a week of training under her belt, she could see that Trinity's jump didn't really break the laws of physics, it just bent the hell out of them. Her jump had been quite high and it was easy to see that such a trajectory would carry her across the street. It was something Syzygy hadn't noticed before as she'd been too preoccupied with the height of the building and the getting across part. She took a few running steps and jumped as high as she could.  
  
The feeling was exhilarating. The wind whipped through her short hair and snatched at her clothing. She hit the highest point of her jump and knew she was going to make it. She landed next to Trinity and took a stumbling step forward.  
  
"That was so fucking cool, I want to do it again!" Syzygy crowed. Trinity stepped aside and gestured towards the ledge. Syzygy grinned and took the jump a second time. Now that she knew she could do it, it was like seeing the world in an entirely different light. Anything was possible! Any- fucking-thing! Hell, she might even ask Neo for flying lessons! She landed this time with no stumble. Trinity took the jump back over and looked at her with approval. Syzygy preened for a moment before Trinity strode past her and stepped up to the ledge on the eastern side of the building.  
  
"Good. Follow me. If you can." With that challenge, she leapt across the divide. Syzygy grinned and followed, watching as Trinity hit the rooftop at a run and made a beeline for the next ledge. Syzygy hit the rooftop a second later and chased after her. She forgot that what she was doing was supposed to be impossible, that she was feeling sore and beat up - forgot everything except the thrill of the chase as she ran across the rooftops and leapt between buildings, dodging sky lights and the occasional rooftop garden. She bounded ahead, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. She imagined she much look something like an actress on a wire in a Hong Kong action flick, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Syzygy raced between a series of chimneys in a residential area and watched as Trinity dove off the side of the building, grabbed a flag pole, swung around like a gymnast, then launched herself into the air, landing on the next building over. Without hesitation, Syzygy leapt over the side of the building, caught the pole, swung around and landed next to Trinity.  
  
It was only then that she realized she'd actually dived off a building, caught a flag pole, swung around it like a gold medalist and then landed, safe and sound, on the roof of another building. This was something they did in cartoons, not in real life.  
  
"Did I just do what I think I did?" Syzygy asked, her voice shaking slightly. The quiver soon found its way into the rest of her body as the adrenaline rush she'd been experiencing came to a crashing halt. She jumped slightly when she felt Trinity's hand on her shoulder.  
  
"You did. You forgot to think and just acted. Remember that feeling. If you stop and think too much, the program wins and you won't be able to do anything." Trinity paused a moment and Syzygy let the advice sink in.  
  
"I think that's enough for now."  
  
"Really?" Syzygy wasn't able to stop the note of sadness from entering her voice. A small part of her knew this was serious training for a serious war, but she'd never had so much fun!  
  
"It's well past lunch. We'll eat and then you might actually come with us into the Matrix. We'll have to see what Morpheus says," Trinity explained. Syzygy nodded and only then realized she was starving. Trinity called for Tank to get them out and almost instantly she was back in her chair. The metal spike slid uncomfortably out and she sat up and undid the straps on her feet. Trinity was already up and out and waiting for her.  
  
"I'm coming, I-" she paused in mid-sentence as her eyes locked with the skinny, bald kid standing next to Morpheus by the ladder between decks. She'd never seen him before, but she knew exactly who he was. She glanced at Morpheus, but his inscrutable face told her nothing. Syzygy looked over at Trinity for support - or maybe inspiration - but the older woman's face was impassive. She was on her own.  
  
The world felt oddly surreal as she finally slid off her chair and strode over to Spike, head held high, euphoria from her training surrounding her like armor. The room was silent except for the clump of her boots on the deck as she walked. Like the jump program, she now knew exactly what she had to do. He was slightly taller than she was, but she felt as if she was the one looking down on him. She stuck out her hand and Spike seemed to reflexively grasp it. She shook it firmly.  
  
"Hi, Spike," she said, words echoing strangely in the dreamlike silence of the Core. "I'm Syzygy." He blinked, uncomprehending for a moment before his eyes widened.  
  
"But, you're a girl!" he protested, looking towards Morpheus then back at her. Syzygy grinned.  
  
"So nice of you to notice," she replied.  
  
"You said you were a guy!" Spike said, his eyes narrowing slightly. A remote part of her felt bad, but she only shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, I did. I lied." Spike sputtered for a second before he wiped a hand across his face.  
  
"You can't be a girl!" Spike finally shouted. Syzygy jerked her thumb in Trinity's direction.  
  
"She's a chick but you thought she was a guy," she pointed out. Spike's mouth opened and closed a few times as he sought an appropriate reply.  
  
"Jez-us. F33r is going to have kittens." Spike ran a hand though the short fuzz on his head before getting angry again. "Why?" he demanded. Syzygy arched an eyebrow.  
  
"Duh," she replied. "Girls aren't welcome in your little boys club. You all assumed I was a guy, so I played along."  
  
"But you lied!" Spike protested again. Syzygy felt the strange emotional coolness begin to dissipate. Luckily, Morpheus chose that moment to step in.  
  
"How did she do Trinity?" he asked, distracting both teenagers.  
  
"She did very well. She's a natural at the jump. We should give her more gymnastic practice. I think she might even surpass Switch's levels given time." Syzygy felt a rush at the high praise. Morpheus nodded for a moment, thinking.  
  
"If you feel she is ready for it, you can take her with you on the run this afternoon."  
  
"I think she can handle it," Trinity assured her captain. Morpheus nodded and clamped a hand on Syzygy's shoulder.  
  
"Good. Get something to eat and some rest. You'll go in with Trinity and Neo."  
  
"Yes sir," Syzygy acknowledged the order and brushed past Spike to head down the ladder. She distantly heard someone following but she was focused on the Mess. She entered the room, mechanically got a tin of food then sat down at the table.  
  
The dream shattered.  
  
The sounds of the ship resurfaced almost painfully loud, like someone had unexpectedly turned the volume way, way, way up after having it very low. Each pulse of the engine felt like a cymbal crash next to her ear. Each creak and groan of the worn metal was a crack of thunder. Her hands shook as she tried to lift some of the goop, but the stuff kept falling off her spork. Finally she set the utensil down and pressed her hands to the table top to try and get them to stop shaking.  
  
Had she just done what she thought she'd just done? That was twice in one day and she wasn't sure she could take another emotional rollercoaster. Neo entered and grabbed his own lunch while Syzygy wrestled with her thoughts. She felt guilty about lying to Spike, but she felt proud that she'd gone up and introduced herself before anyone could tell her secret. She felt enraged that she felt the need to hide - like being female was some dirty little secret you didn't tell the neighbors, but at the same time she almost felt filthy for playing to the assumptions of the other hackers.  
  
Neo sat beside her and she found him to be a somewhat calming presence. Spike was part of her old, mostly hidden life.. Neo and everyone else on the crew was part of her new, open life. Trinity came and sat down on her other side and Syzygy felt her adrenaline rush lessen further.  
  
"You ok?" the older woman asked. Syzygy let out a stream of air and nodded.  
  
"Yep. I did what I had to do, and now it's done. And if Spike has a problem with me, he can go to hell," she stated fiercely. Trinity smirked.  
  
"I think Morpheus was going to introduce you two, but maybe it worked out for the better. Don't worry about Spike. He'll get over it. Finish eating and then try and get some rest."  
  
Syzygy nodded and forced the rest of her meal down. She was more nervous than hungry, but she knew she had to eat something. She rinsed her tin and made her way back to her cabin. She settled on her small bed and contemplated her training. The martial arts was fun and challenging but she knew she had a long way to go before she could match Morpheus, Trinity or Neo. She'd never fired a weapon before the gun downloads and though she was now deadly accurate, she preferred closer combat. Sword and knife fighting had been especially fun to learn. She had the know-how because of the download, but she also had the bruises from the hard lesson that knowing and doing were often different things. She only hoped she'd be ok on the run today.  
  
A rap on her door woke her some time later. She'd been sure she wasn't going to get sleep, but her body obviously had needed the rest after the workout earlier. Syzygy rolled out of bed and opened the door. Tank's beaming face greeted her on the other side and she couldn't help but smile back.  
  
"Hi," he said, "ready to go?"  
  
"If Morpheus and Trinity say I am, yeah." Syzygy shrugged. Tank clapped a hand across her shoulders and began leading her down the hall in a brotherly sort of way.  
  
"Well, that's just fine but how do you feel?"  
  
"Uhm, ok I guess." She supposed she was ok, but now that Tank was asking her, she didn't feel as confident. Damn, there were those butterflies again. "I don't think I'd be going in if they thought I couldn't survive.right?"  
  
"Exactly. You were doing well from where I was sitting," Tank reassured her. "I think you'll be ok if you stick with Neo and Trinity and remember your training." He broke into a huge grin. "But since all that is downloaded into your brain, you really can't forget it, so that's one less thing to worry over." Syzygy couldn't help but catch Tank's infectious smile. And it was true, strange though it was. She began to feel the butterflies settle.  
  
"What are we doing?" Syzygy asked as they climbed the ladder to the Core. She had absolutely no idea what resistance members did other than stalk people they wanted to unplug and kick the ever-lovin' shit out of agents.  
  
"We're going to be collecting some surveillance, dropping off some messages for other ships, and we'll be contacting the Vigilant," Trinity said over her shoulder. She was standing behind Link who was busy at the Operator's console.  
  
"Will we see any agents?" Syzygy asked. Her brief encounter with them had been rather horrific and she'd had a couple nightmares about it since waking up on the Neb. She really did not want to meet one of the killer programs again and shuddered as she recalled the agents taking over her parents.  
  
"Possibly," Trinity told her. "Neo seems to attract them." Her completely even voice said more on the subject than any sort of inflection could have.  
  
"I can handle them," Neo insisted from where he was checking the equipment by the chairs. An unfathomable something passed between the two in the brief moment of silence that followed, causing Syzygy to feel a bit like a voyeur. She caught Tank's eye and he looked like he felt the same way. The moment ended when Trinity nodded agreement.  
  
"Neo and I will handle any agents that show up. If one shows up, you run." Trinity stepped down from the operator's level to the circle of chairs. Syzygy clunked down the steps after her, sat in 'her' chair and strapped her feet in.  
  
"Gotcha. I see an agent I run."  
  
"Good. See you on the other side," Trinity told her as she slid the data spike into her head.  
  
Being 'awake' Construct was strange after being awake on the ship for even a few hours. It was pristine, almost blindingly white, and utterly unlike anything on the Neb or the tunnels the ship flew through. Syzygy wore the leather outfit she'd been wearing earlier that day. Her short, dirty blond hair was gelled back out of her face and she found a pair of sunglasses tucked into the pocket of her jacket.  
  
As she slid the shades on her face, Neo was suddenly there. Trinity's RSI followed a moment later, another dark angel in the heavenly white. The pair faced her and Trinity called out for weapons. Racks of guns, ammo, knives, swords, grenades and explosives, shot across the space. Syzygy looked longingly at the swords but chose a handgun, grabbed a few extra clips and, unable to resist, slid a knife into the top of her boot.  
  
"Where are we going?" She asked as Trinity selected her own arms. Neo stood to one side, reading information off what looked like a palm pilot. He didn't choose any guns: he didn't need to.  
  
"New York," Trinity answered. "We're making data drops in one of the train stations and collecting, our mail and the news. We also have a brief meeting with the crew of the Vigilant there. If everything goes well, we're picking up some CDs."  
  
"CDs?" Syzygy questioned. She couldn't think of a plausible reason for buying music.  
  
"We have to periodically survey the media made in the Matrix for machine tampering," Neo explained. Syzygy thought about that for a second.  
  
"Wait, like for subliminal messages?" She blinked a few times behind her dark shades. She'd never been one for conspiracy theories about hidden messages in music. Apparently she'd been wrong.  
  
"Those and sometimes they integrate low level carrier signal disruptions into popular music. It makes our job much more difficult if we don't know what's out there," Neo told her with a small shrug. "Plus the music is good and most of it is still made entirely by humans." They shared a brief smile before becoming serious once again.  
  
"Time to go," Trinity told them. "Tank. We need an entrance." Instantly, an old fashioned radial dial phone appeared on a pedestal. Trinity held out a cell phone and Syzygy took it, noting the serious air now surrounding both Trinity and Neo.  
  
"Today's run is routine. Routine usually means running for your life. Understand?" Trinity's voice was steely. Syzygy nodded once. "Good. You go last." The phone rang then and Neo picked it up. His RSI dissolved into little rivulets of code which swirled into the phone in less than a second. The phone fell, bounced on its cord a few times like an undersized bungee jumper and swung there. Trinity picked up the phone and replaced it. It immediately began to ring again.  
  
"When I go through, hang up, wait for the ring and then pick it up," Trinity instructed. She placed the phone to her ear and was gone in a flash of code. Syzygy replaced the earpiece on the cradle and waited for it to ring. She felt like she was waiting for an eternity and then when it did ring, it was too soon. She picked up the earpiece and felt a rush of extremes: freezing cold, scalding hot, swift movement and heavy, immobilizing gravity. She opened eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed and faced Trinity. Neo was looking out of a dusty and cracked window. They were in a rundown room. The sound of heavy city traffic filtered in from outside. A twin of the old radial dial phone was on a dusty table next to her.  
  
"Let's go," Trinity ordered. Neo was the first through the door and into the hallway beyond, setting a brisk pace. Trinity followed with Syzygy close behind. As the three walked down a dirty hallway, Syzygy tried to feel the program around her. There was perhaps something subtly different about the air here. She reached out and trailed a finger across the wall, trying to see if it felt any different. Did it? She couldn't tell. Neo paused by a heavy fire door. Daylight streamed out from under the door and the traffic sounds were louder.  
  
"This is it. Ready?" Trinity asked, breaking the silence. Syzygy nodded. Trinity removed a set of locker keys from her trench coat and handed four to Neo and two to Syzygy. "Your keys open lockers on the first floor. You need to move what is in locker 47 into locker 242 and take any disks. Call the Mjolnir with message Alpha-Zed. When you're done with that, go buy the news if neither of us has yet."  
  
"OK," Syzygy acknowledged the order. Trinity nodded and Neo pushed the door open. They stepped into an alleyway in the middle of the city and took a look around. Skyscrapers towered over head the rushing traffic rumbled close by and the alley stunk of garbage and truck exhaust. But was it real? Were the imperfections she felt the work of her own mind or of the Matrix? Trinity and Neo exchanged a glance - Part amusement, part sadness - then strode towards the street. Syzygy snapped out of her reverie and followed.  
  
As the train station they were heading for was only a block away, they hadn't brought a car - but, feeling the odd though familiar press of people around her, Syzygy wished they had. Knowing that any one of the pedestrians in the flowing foot traffic around her could turn into an agent was more than slightly unnerving and she wished she had the barrier of a car surrounding her. Trinity and Neo cut a clean swath through the crowd and she followed in their wake, keeping a clear eye out for anyone wearing a drab suit and an earpiece.  
  
The arrived without incident a few moments later and after a quick nod from Trinity, Syzygy made her way over to the lockers. She'd never been here before but she knew where everything was thanks to the operational downloads. It was a weird feeling, remembering something she'd never seen before - but, she decided, it was one of the better new sensations. Locker 47 opened smoothly to reveal a worn looking purse sitting on top of an accordion file folder. Syzygy quickly rummaged around for any disks finding three, she grabbed the folder and purse and slammed the locker door shut. Locker 242 was on the second floor. She quickly made her way up the stairs and located the locker. She opened the door and stuffed the file and purse inside. She closed the door, took the key and gave the handle a bit of a tug to be sure that it was secure. It was so she strolled nonchalantly towards the vendor selling cinnamon buns to the morning breakfast rush. She picked out a pay phone with didn't have many people around it and dug in her pocket for some change. Like all resistance ships, the Hammer had a fake business number which connected to a floating voicemail box hidden in the phone networks of the Matrix. She recalled the number from memory and thought over code Alpha-Zed while the line connected.  
  
"Midgard tool sales and repair, specializing in hammers of all shapes and sizes since 1929. We are not open at the moment but if you would like to leave a message at the tone, we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you!" a cheery female voice recording chirped. Syzygy suspected the voice belonged to Maggie, the only female member of the Hammer's crew.  
  
"This is Miss Nabu calling to update you on your order b4-b-y10n. Your girdle will be ready for delivery in four business days." Syzygy hung up the pay phone and made her way back downstairs. Neo fell into step beside her and handed her part of his stack of news papers. Syzygy rolled them up and stuck them into her coat's pocket. Trinity joined them a second later, took another third of the news papers and the three made their way towards the exit.  
  
"Starbucks on 5th," Trinity instructed as she took the lead. Syzygy dutifully followed behind. The crowds outside had thinned a little and Syzygy breathed a bit easier. She was anxious to meet with the Vigilant's crew. They would be the ones, hopefully, unplugging F33r and Griffin. She had yet to meet anyone else from the Resistance and wondered what sort of people they were.  
  
The smell of coffee and chocolate and other such heavenly things assaulted her as soon as she stepped into the room. They were in a lull between rush hours and the place was sparsely populated. Syzygy briefly wondered if a bunch of people dressed to kick ass wouldn't garner much unwanted attention if they walked into Starbucks. Looking around however she saw that the small crowd was equally colorful. Only in New York, she thought with amusement. The group they were heading for were relaxed around a large table. A bald man of middle height stood as they approached. The small woman wore a severe hairdo and an exceptionally tight outfit under a short leather coat. The dark skinned man looked like Blade and, Syzygy noted with some envy, was sipping a cappuccino.  
  
"Trinity," the bald man greeted her with a nod, "Neo."  
  
"Captain Soren," Trinity replied with a regal incline of her head. Neo nodded a greeting. Soren's eyes moved from Trinity and Neo to Syzygy, sizing her up.  
  
"And this must be the newbie. Back here so soon? She must be good." Soren looked over at Trinity who tilted her head slightly in a gesture that could have meant anything. Soren's gaze returned to Syzygy. "Hopefully your friends will be as talented. It's good to meet you," Soren said as he extended a hand. Syzygy clasped it firmly for a second.  
  
"Pleased to meet you," she replied. Soren smiled.  
  
"Please, sit," he invited. When everyone was seated, he turned his attention back to Syzygy. "What can you tell us about your friends? What do you think they will do?" Syzygy paused for a moment to think.  
  
"I . I think they will both choose the truth if it is offered to them. Griffin is a bit more cautious that the rest of us, but he's also the one who comes up with the craziest ideas, so I think he'll have an easier time accepting what you tell him. F33r I think will be really pissed off more than anything." Soren was nodding.  
  
"Uhm sir?" Syzygy asked. Soren waved for her to speak. "Neither of them exactly knows ."  
  
"That you're a girl?" he finished. Syzygy nodded once, hating the burning blush she could feel spreading quickly across her cheeks.  
  
"I feel I should tell them if that's ok by you."  
  
"I agree. We won't say a word. Now, there may be some difficulties" Soren said, turning to face Neo and Trinity. "There has been agent activity in or near their areas. We're keeping a remote watch, but we haven't been able to make second contact yet because of that. The Caduceus was operating in Griffin's area not too long ago, so we've decided to get F33r first. We've left messages and they've been trying to hunt me down in addition to Morpheus."  
  
"Will you need us when you finally make contact?" Trinity asked.  
  
"Because of the agents, quite possibly. We were planning on offering him the choice by the end of the week," Soren replied.  
  
Trinity nodded. "We'll be in broadcast range. We'll be available if you need us."  
  
"Thank you." Soren said with genuine warmth as he stood. The Neb's crew stood as well. Clearly the meeting was over. Soren and Trinity shook hands and then he and his crew departed without a second glance. Trinity turned and led Syzygy and Neo through a different exit and down the street.  
  
"Hopefully they won't need us," Neo commented in a low tone as the three fell into step side by side. Trinity glanced at Neo.  
  
"Hopefully they won't need you," she said, stressing slightly.  
  
"Or you," Neo replied after a few steps. Trinity removed a slip of paper from her pocket and handed it to Syzygy.  
  
"Get these," she instructed. The paper was a list of CD titles and artists. Syzygy looked up and realized they were in front of a huge Virgin Megastore. Neo took up a relaxed stance outside and she followed Trinity inside. "If you see anything else you like, get it. You should have a credit card in your pocket."  
  
Syzygy wandered off in the opposite direction from Trinity and read the list. Most of the items were classic rock albums but a few were techno. She grabbed a hand basket as she passed a stack and started with the techno. She was midway through the classics when she started to get a headache. She realized she hadn't taken off her sunglasses and pushed them up on her head, hoping that would solve it. She continued her search, slowly going down the aisles, matching the items on her list. She paused for a moment under one of the speakers in the store. Some horrid pop song was playing over the store loudspeaker. Syzygy glared up at the speaker and moved away.  
  
Trinity was suddenly at her side. "Take what you have and checkout now. They're on to us. Go."  
  
Syzygy looked around as she hurried over to the checkout. The bored looking clerk eyed her and the stack of Cds in the basket, but began scanning them anyway. Syzygy felt in her pocket and removed a Visa card; with a grin she handed the card to the clerk. The girl shrugged and processed the transaction. Syzygy quickly scribbled something on the slip of paper passed to her and hurried towards the door: her head was pounding now and she just wanted to get out of the store. She met Trinity outside and immediately felt better. A dark car pulled up beside them and Trinity pushed Syzygy inside. Neo got out from the driver's seat and hopped in back with Syzygy while Trinity took control and drove off. Syzygy blinked repeatedly as the car sped away.  
  
"The hell was that?" she asked. Neo was ripping through the plastic wrap on the CDs using a small knife. Syzygy blinked once more, and pulled out her boot knife to copy his motion.  
  
"Britney Spears," Trinity informed her. "She's one of the newer Siren programs. Means the agents are on to us."  
  
"Wait..Britney Spears is a program? You have got to be joking!"  
  
"Nope," Neo smirked from the other side of the back seat. He was now fiddling with some sort of CD player on steroids. It had extra wires trailing off it and looked like someone had jury-rigged a calculator and external hard drive to it. "Says something about popular music, doesn't it?"  
  
"Hell yeah," Syzygy agreed. "What's that?"  
  
"This thing records all the data on the CDs and puts it on a smaller disk." Neo explained as he began feeding disks into the device. The CD went in, Neo pressed a button, the little machine whined for a second then Neo took the CD out and did the whole thing again. Syzygy watched as she continued to unwrap CDs. Neo's cell rang and he handed the operation over to Syzygy.  
  
"What is it?" Trinity asked, looking back in the rearview mirror.  
  
"Agents on our tail. They're just-" Neo was cut off as a car rear-ended them from behind.  
  
"Shit," Trinity spat and threw the wheel sharply to the left, turning them into oncoming traffic for an instant before turning off down a smaller side street.  
  
"Tank says there is an exit for us three blocks south and over one west."  
  
"Right. Problem with that."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Road block," Trinity said even as she gunned the engine. Syzygy felt as if time slowed down as she realized Trinity was going to drive right through the construction site ahead. She held onto the door and the car sped forward. Suddenly Trinity veered to one side and, in a move truly worthy of the dukes of hazard, jumped the construction site. The car came down hard, bounced and sped on.  
  
"God!" Syzygy exclaimed when she regained her voice.  
  
"That's why she drives," Neo commented dryly. The car jolted again and fishtailed for a second before Trinity regained control. "Blown tire?" Neo asked.  
  
"Yep," Trinity replied. "Where exactly is this exit?" she asked.  
  
"Just up ahead. 14th floor of the building at the corner of 151st and 90th," Neo responded after a second conference with Tank.  
  
"And the Agent?" A loud thud on the rooftop answered her.  
  
"Here," Neo said. He started to get up but Trinity stopped him.  
  
"Hold on a second." She threw the wheel tightly to the side again and made a bee-line for a parking garage. The Agent meanwhile began ripping at the car's roof. The program removed most of it in one huge tear and glared down at them before being smacked away by the low ceiling of the garage.  
  
"Nice," Syzygy commented. The car whipped around the parking garage levels, climbing ever higher, dodging other cars and people. She watched it all pass by in a blur.  
  
"Take this, leave the rest," Neo instructed as he handed her an odd looking chip from the beefed-up CD player. Syzygy tucked it into her pocket with the rest of the disks. Trinity suddenly skidded to a halt. They'd reached the roof and the only way out was down. They all abandoned the car and Syzygy followed Neo and Trinity as they raced for the edge of the roof top.  
  
"Time to test those jumping skills," Trinity yelled before leaping across the gap for the building across the way. Syzygy gritted her teeth and followed, trying to remember that she could do this. She landed hard next to Trinity and was glad she was wearing leather or she'd have been scraped badly. Neo landed lightly next to them and the three proceeded towards the rooftop door. Neo took the lead and kicked the door down. They scrambled down the steps, saving time by leaping down entire flights. They stopped on the 14th floor and were promptly met by a surprised looking janitor. Neo punched the man out as he began morphing and shoved him aside as the three raced down the hall, Trinity now leading.  
  
"Room 42! At the end of the hall!" Neo yelled from being Syzygy. Trinity kicked down the door this time and they raced inside. The phone on the table was ringing.  
  
"You first!" Trinity ordered. Syzygy reached for the phone the exact moment she heard the static whine of an Agent. She turned and saw one of the hotel's cleaning ladies, now a tall Caucasian man in a suit, throw down her mop and reach for Trinity. The last thing she saw before she was sucked into the Construct was Trinity scorpion-kicking the Agent and Neo thundering down the hallway like a dark cloud.  
  
Then she was in the Construct. She staggered a step and looked around.  
  
"You ok?" The voice was Tank's.  
  
"Yeah. There was an Agent."  
  
"We know. They're taking care of it. Put everything you took here," Tank instructed as a small wicker basket appeared in front of her. Syzygy put the disks and papers into the basket with trembling hands. A moment later Trinity joined her in the white space.  
  
"You ok?" the two asked at the same time. "Yes" they said again. Trinity held up a silencing finger and frowned.  
  
"Good." She said. Neo appeared and Trinity's frown disappeared.  
  
"The Agent?" she asked.  
  
"Had to find another body."  
  
"OK. I think we can leave this for later." Trinity dumped her own set of disks and news into the basket. Neo agreed and added his own.  
  
"Tank. Get us out." Trinity asked sounding tired. Neo's businesslike visage was beginning to fade as well.  
  
Syzygy was pulled back into her body and she slowly sat up. The spike slid from her head and Morpheus handed her cap back to her.  
  
"Good job today."  
  
"Thank you," she said as she tugged the hat back over her ears.  
  
"CHRIST!" Spike yelled finally finding his voice, eyes wide. "You could have died! That was insane!" He was standing behind Tank at the operator's station. Obviously he'd been watching the action.  
  
"It was pretty intense," Syzygy admitted. Her hands were shaking and she couldn't get them to stop. Damn adrenaline.  
  
"Jeez-us."  
  
"Come on," Tank prodded Syzygy out of her chair gently. "You have a few bruises. Let's go get those taken care of and then you can have a nice relaxing breakdown." Syzygy stepped down from her chair and grimaced. Tank tossed a blanket across her shoulders; she was suddenly cold and clung to it.  
  
"A beakdown sounds good," she admitted with a forced smile.  
  
"Good! I have always thought they were rather healthy myself. And after you're done with that I can kick your ass at cards." Tank smirked, obviously trying to make her feel better. Syzygy smiled back. It was working. 


End file.
